Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

IN THE PADDOCK BYM ICHAEL S O C TT h e Bla ck Fla g Sca n dal of the Catalunyan GP will live on in raeinginfamy. First the facts . Three rid ers : Katsu a i Fu jiw ara, Ale x Cr iville a n d Je anichel Bayle -" .crashed in the firs t corer. All stood up, but Bayle colla psed gain and lay in the gravel trap , receivg a ttention. Yellow flags were waving n the pit straight and at the end of the ravel trap. Starting lap two, Max Biaggi d ived side Alex Barros right between tw o aving flag s on the entry to the wide O-degree right-hander, takin g the lead. s they passed th e sce ne of th e ac cien t, he then ran wide and Barros went ack ahea d on the en try to the su bseuent Ieft-hander, a few ya rds beyo nd re last flag. As th e ra ce w ent o n, nice d ir ector obert o Nosetto viewed the tap es fro m ee angles . As we ll as that of the lead ng p a ir , h e s u s pec te d a s im il a r nfrin g em en t h ad occur re d a littl e ehind the leaders, and it required careI scru tiny, he said , to be su re this wa s ot the case . Thus it was some 25 mintes into the race w hen he fina lly took ction. This was to show the stop-ando pena lty flag to Biaggi. For the next three laps, the Italian nored the flag as well as sig na ls fro m is pit. This autom atically triggered the la ck fla g of d isqu ali fi cati on. H e gnored that, too, continu ing to lead the ace as t h e ca u tio us Doohan , Clos e eh ind, realize d th ere w as no ne ed to isk an overtaking move tha t might, a t vorst , see Bia g gi take b o th o f them o wn, Fo r hi s g r a n d fi nale, Biag gi t he n ehaved as if he had w on the race, wa vng to th e crow d s a nd a ttem p ting to ull in to the winner' s circle. At the same tim e the black came out, he process began fo r Barros, with a e na lly flag at th e pit en t ra nce . H e hose to obey. He pulled in, shaking his ead, for the 10-se cond s to p-and -go, nd rejoined at good speed to finis h just 5.74 seco nds behind Dooh an. This wa s fair m ea sure of exactly how mu ch ime he had los t, since they had been ore or less together. , Both teams later protested ; this was utom ati call y turn ed d own , giving hem th e o p po rtu n ity to appeal to a pecial FIM tribunal. Not su rprisi ngly, hey u p hel d N osetto' s d ecisi on. Th is gave the team s ano ther 10 days to appeal to a higher tribunal. team Barr o s ' s chose not to tak e th e m a tt er furth er, in exc h a n ge for a promise that th e rules w ou ld be more spe cific on these mat ters rather th an lea ving it entirely up to th e r a ce d ir e ct or' s ' di scr etion; Bia g gi ' s team (h a n d in glove wit h Ma rl boro law ye rs) w e re s till co nside ring their op tio ns as the d eadlin e drew close. The r ace a n d its 'imm ed ia te a fterma th to o k pl a ce a m id a general uproar. Dorn a m an a ging dir ect or Carm elo Es pele ta learned o f th e a ffa ir from the Eu ros po r t TV comme n tary, and was rumored to have rea ct ed an gril y to being confronted with a fait accompli th a t effectively ru ined the closest World Champion s hip ba t tl e fo r y e ars . Two w e eks later , he told me , "It is absolu te ly co rr ect th at the commerci al side of the bu sin ess is n ot involved in th e sporting side of running the meeting." , H e of course su pported Nosetto, though -there were still rumors that the latter' s job was und er severe threat. Max B lagg l h ad a le gitimate sh o t at bei n g 50 0c c Wo rld For h is part, th e Champion In his rookie year In the cl ass - until his black fl ag at s li g h t, bespect acled the Spanish GP. Italian d e fend ed h is position most imprestection available to fallen rid ers, and to sively and eloquently in the press room People allend ing them. For that reason, I late o n Sunday ni ght. H e t ook full responsibility, say ing, "When I mad e the mus t apply a pena lty. It could have been d ecision, I w as alone wit h m y fa the r. a fine - bu t that means one thing to a rich And he died 40 years a go." And h e team a nd a no t he r t o a p o or tea m . I d efended it en tirely on th e groun ds of belie ve this sp o rting pe na lty was th e safety. "The yellow flag is the only probest one." oYEARS AGO... OVE BE M R14, 1968 ave Damron (Suz) an d Jerry Greene (Hon) were tw o of the big wi nners at the fifth nnual ACA Ll.S, GP road race a t i1low Sp rin gs Internati o nal ceway in the Sou thern Califoriadeser t. Damron wo n th e 25 / 175 / 200cc combined race verall , w hile Gr een e grabbed he g old in th e co m b ined 0/350/500cc and Open Prou ct ion ra ce ... Novice fla t- tracke r Keith ashburn won his division's main event at Ascot Park, iving Mashburn seven victories in his last eight races at scot... BSA used Bakersfield Hillc1imb winner Frank ursa in a win ad proclaiming October 26 as "BSA Day," hanks to a variety of victories gained by the marque on hat particular weekend... Our covera ge of the class-A peed way m ot orcycl e 'ra cing at Whiteman Stad ium ncluded a photo of Don Hawley being pursu ed by a ouple o f up-and-coming sib lin gs named Steve and ' ike. Oh , yeah - their last name was Bast. D Man y qu esti ons rem a ined. The first concern ed the stop-a nd-go penalt y itself - an idea that Nosetto bro ug ht with him from Formula One car racing, where a GP is alm ost two hou rs lon g, and there is at least some chance of making up the 25 seco nds lost. In a motorcycle race, 25 seconds is a lifetime when yo u' re di sputing the lead . H ow ever, th e complaints grew less vocal when rem inded wh at the stop-a nd-go was rep lacing . It was originally introduced for jump starts , wh ere the previous penalty was a fu ll minute added on to the rid er' s time after the race. And the previou s penalty for overt aking under yellow flags was immediate d isqualification. A thornier qu estion pitches p rinciple agains t exped iency, wi th the suggestion that the case should have been taken on its merits. Th ou gh there was no d oubt .. tha t Bia ggi had offended, it wa s a lso possib le to see how - tu cked in to Barros's slipstrea m at alm ost 200 mph - he might not have seen them . Barros ' position w as even m ore arg uab le. Mean w hile, how mu ch da nger wasactual ly invo lved? Not that much, to be honest Ba yl e was so me way off the trac k, a ll ho ug h, o n th e o th er h an d , th e approach speed is very high . But the re we re other factors as well - most especia lly th e s ta te of the champ io ns hi p, which until now had been bu ild ing up to a magn ificent climax. This is, af ter all, an en tert ainment industry. Nosetto st uc k w it h p rinciples, and became a tar get for criticism . Some even suggest an all-Italian ven de tta . After all, last year at Assen, he was very hard on Biaggi. After a sta rt-line infringement, h e not on ly m ade him s ta rt fro m pit lan e, a t th e back of the field, bu t th en also applied a sto p-a nd -go, whic h Biaggi also ign ored, lead ing to disqualification then as wei!. Onl y tw o things are rea lly clear. Firs tly, th at Bia gg i was w ro ng to ignore th e fla gs - especially the black flag. Seco n d ly, t ha t this wo u ld n e v er h a ve h appen ed in Fo r m ula On e, be cau se the blessed Bernie Eccles tone is rather better at running an enterta inment bu siness than Dorna an d its curren t cohorts. And do es an yone really wa n t a d ictat or lik e Ecclestone running G P ra cing? (':\ 20 YEARS A O G ... N VEMBER 1, 1978 O 10Y EARSAGO ... O TO R26,1988 C BE he Latest Poop fea tu re d phot os of a t least three new m od el s of plastic boots se t t o r ea ch th e offroad market for 1979. They had b ee n developed se pa r at e ly b y Sco tt, MXL a nd Tebo. Th e Scoll boot, which retail ed for $180, was fairl y successfu l in terms of sales, but were a ll three versions were d is continued wi thin a few yea rs... Terry Vance was break ing IDBA Pro Stock Bike record s, run nin g his Van ce & Hines Su zuki d own th e quarter-mile in n ine seconds fla t at a speed of 147.05 mph. Today, Ma ll Hi nes ge ts the sa me job d on e abou t two seconds qu icker and abou t 50 mph fas te r o n hi s Va nce & Hines Suz u ki.. . We offere d a riding im p ression o f Chuck Sun's TransAMA Husqvama 390, and we als o tested the CCM 580 four-stroke mo tocrosser... Barry Sheene (Suz) wo n th e John Player .Race of th e Year at Mallory Park' in England. he Human Race Team (Yam) rode across our cove r as the wi nne rs of ro u nd 13 of th e WERA Na tional End ura nce Series a t Ind ian apolis Racewa y Pa rk... Kyle Lewis (Hon) a nd Ty so n Vohland (Kaw) posted overa ll victories during the fifth round of the CMC /Dodge Tru ck Trans-Cal Series at Argyll Park in Dixon, California . Lewis won the 125cc Pro class, and Vohland won the 250cc Pro class... Steve Lucero (Cdn) won the 1988 Coors U.S. National Speed way Championsh ip at th e Orange Coun ty Fai rgro u nds in Cost a Mesa, California. Lucero's good fortune, mixed with the misfortunes of his competitors, allowed him to clinch the title after only four of his five scheduled rides... Tony Hendon (ATK) had alread y claimed the AMA National Har e Scrambles title, but he went ahead and claimed the overall win at round ~l of the series in Millville, Minnesota, anyway... Sam Ennolenko (GM) Scored a 15-point maximum to lift the California State Speedway Championsh ip title at Inland Motor Speedway in San Bernardino, California . (:\ T T 00 0'\ 0'\ ...... 00 C'l 1-0 Q) .g ..... o U 71

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